LinkedIn is arguably the most well-known of the professional-networking sites, but a handful of competitors have recently arrived on the scene — and they are making a play for some of LinkedIn’s market.

Like LinkedIn, newcomers Ryze, Spoke and Jigsaw allow you to fill out a free profile that is available for other members to view. Then, you begin to add your own personal network by searching for contacts who are already members of the site or by sending email invitations to colleagues and contacts.

Ryze and Spoke make this process relatively painless, but Jigsaw requires you to confirm your identity by using an email address from a company within its directory. If you do not have an email address from a member company, you must supply a credit card number to confirm your identity. Although Jigsaw says it won’t use this number unless you decide to upgrade to a paid membership, some users might be scared off by this step.

Ryze and Spoke function much like LinkedIn in that you can search contacts using criteria such as company, name or title. Spoke allows you to build your own private address book on the site via the SpokeBook feature, to email contact information and to receive alerts when new contacts are added that meet your search criteria. Spoke also offers a free toolbar that allows you to search the site from Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer or Salesforce.com, as well as create your own network. But the real function of the toolbar is to evaluate email traffic between Spoke members in Microsoft Outlook to determine the strength of the network.

Ryze takes a less invasive, more community-based approach. In addition to searching for contacts, it allows you to search networks and create your own, find events in your area, and peruse classified listings. You can communicate via private messages and ask people to network with you.

Jigsaw functions somewhat differently from Spoke, Ryze and LinkedIn in that it is primarily geared toward lead generation. After you sign up, you choose whether you want a paid or free membership. A paid membership gets you 25 contacts per month for $25, as well as the ability to export contacts to Microsoft Excel, CVS or Salesforce.com; manage tasks; take notes; and buy more contacts if needed. With the free membership, you must add contacts to receive contacts. For every contact you contribute to the database, you get one in return. (As a paying member, you can also add contacts to receive new ones.)

All of the networking sites are good for generating sales leads, but Jigsaw seems targeted at high-volume salespeople who need to get their hands on new contacts quickly. Spoke, Ryze and LinkedIn are more about building personal networks and participating in an online community.

All of these sites offer paid memberships that give you a few added bells and whistles. Ryze, for example, allows you to search for 25 contacts beyond two degrees of separation in your network for $25 per month or search for 50 people for $50 per month.

Spoke offers Spoke Pro for $50 per month; the service allows you to increase your searches per day, manage your prospects lists and export lists.

Although some sites have more features than others, it’s worth exploring a few different networks to see which one best fits your needs.

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